Porsche AG (+0.1%) finished its first trading session close to its IPO price. Its parent company Volkswagen (-6.6%) had set the IPO price of the sports car manufacturer at 82.50 euros, an amount corresponding to the top of the indicative range. Porsche's IPO, which values the group at more than 75 billion euros, is the largest in Europe for more than ten years. Referring to its famous car model, Porsche has 911 million shares in issue. Volkswagen aims to distribute 49% of the proceeds in the form of a special dividend and envisages to put the proposal to a shareholder vote in December. Volkswagen raised approximately 19.5 billion euros in this initial public offering (IPO). The deal makes Porsche one of the world's top five carmakers in terms of market capitalisation, behind its parent company but ahead of Mercedes-Benz Group, which has a capitalisation of $56 billion. Tesla tops the list at $886 billion, followed by Japan's Toyota Motor. The IPO coincides with a sluggish market on both sides of the Atlantic. The German carmaker has managed to defy this gloomy context because of its solid financial results over the years, bankers and investors point out. Porsche posted revenues of $33.1 billion last year and an operating margin of 16%, up from 9.7% during the 2009 financial crisis. Meanwhile, the carmaker's output has tripled to more than 300,000 vehicles a year, according to the listing prospectus.

The Switzerland stock market ended notably lower on Thursday as worries about recession and rising interest rates rendered the mood bearish. The benchmark SMI, which stayed in negative territory right through the day's trading session, ended with a loss of 93.77 points or 0.92% at 10,126.99. The index touched a low of 10,041.52 around noon. Credit Suisse and Partners Group both ended lower by about 4.3%. Richemont ended 3.6% down, while Sika, Geberit, Logitech and Sonova lost 2.1 to 2.5%. UBS Group, Holcim, Roche Holding, Alcon, Givaudan and Swisscom also ended notably lower. Swiss Re climbed about 1.5%. Nestle gained 0.76%, while Novartis edged up marginally. Among the stocks in the Mid Price Index, Zur Rose tanked 11.5%. AMS ended nearly 7% down. VAT Group, Temenos Group, Dufry, Straumann Holding and Julius Baer lost 4 to 4.8%. Swiss Prime Site, Tecan Group and Galenica Sante gained 1.3 to 1.5%, while PSP Swiss Property advanced 0.52%.

European shares were sharply lower again on Thursday as the positive impact from the previous day's gilt-market intervention by the Bank of England quickly faded. Concerns mount about the risk of sharp interest-rate rises, particularly in the U.K., following last week's government announcement of sweeping tax cuts to be funded by borrowing. Markets were also upset by reports that that Sweden's coast guard discovered a fourth gas leak on the damaged Nord Stream pipelines, heightening energy security concerns. The pan European Stoxx 600 declined 1.67%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 drifted down 1.77%, Germany's DAX slid 1.71% and France's CAC 40 ended lower by 1.53%, while Switzerland's SMI shed 0.92%. In the UK market, Barratt Developments and Next tanked 12.7% and 12.2%, respectively. Next shares fell as the clothes retailer issued its second profit warning this year, citing tough trading in August and cost-of-living pressures. Ocado Group plunged 10.1%, Auto Trader Group dropped 8.48% and Rightmove fell 7.7%. Smurfit Kappa Group, Frasers Group, Persimmon, Melrose Industries, Tesco, IAG, M&G, BT Group, Centrica and Barclays Group lost 4 to 7%. Rolls-Royce Holdings climbed 2.35% and BAE Systems surged 2%, while Glencore, Anglo American Plc and Reckitt Benckiser gained 0.9 to 1.25%. In Paris, Faurecia tanked 14.7%. Valeo and Renault lost 8.8% and 7%, respectively. Carrefour, STMicroElectronics, WorldLine, Vivendi, Unibail Rodamco, Saint Gobain, Societe Generale, Michelin, Air France-KLM and Publicis Groupe lost 2.6 to 5.5%. Atos soared nearly 11%. Thales ended higher by about 2.75%. In the German market, Porsche Automobil plunged nearly 11%. Volkswagen, Continental, Zalando, HelloFresh, Adidas, Daimler, BMW, Infineon Technologies and Deutsche Bank lost 3 to 7%. Munich RE shares gained about 2.5%.

U.S. stocks fell Thursday, sending the S&P 500 to a new low for the year, as the worst bond rout in a generation upended markets and investors wrestled anew with worries about a global slowdown. The declines jolted investors who enjoyed a short-lived stock rally on Wednesday. On Thursday, the S&P 500 dropped 78.57 points, or 2.1%, to 3640.47. The Dow industrials slid 458.13 points, or 1.5%, to 29225.61, giving up much of the previous day’s gains. The tech-heavy Nasdaq pulled back 314.13 points, or 2.8%, to 10737.51. The selloff Thursday spread broadly across U.S. equity markets. All 11 sectors of the S&P 500 fell. CarMax was the biggest laggard on the S&P 500, down $21.26, or about 25%, to $65.16 per share after huge earnings miss. The used-car retailer posted a quarterly profit of 79 cents a share, far less than the $1.39 expected by analysts tracked by FactSet. Bed Bath & Beyond shares pulled back 27 cents, or 4.2%, to $6.19 after reporting widening losses. Airlines and cruise lines suffered from Hurricane Ian in the Gulf of Mexico, which led authorities to cancel more than 2,000 flights and close ports in Florida. Delta lost 3.6% and United Airlines dropped 3%. Cruise lines Carnival and Royal Caribbean declined by 5.2% and 7.9% respectively. Mark Zuckerberg warned employees Thursday that a hiring freeze and restructuring would take place at Meta Platforms (-3.7%), Facebook's parent company, Bloomberg reported. Regarding the technology space, Amazon fell 2.7 percent, Alphabet 2.6 percent and Nvidia 4 percent. Coffee chain Starbucks (-0.6%) announced Wednesday after hours an 8% increase in its quarterly dividend to 53 cents per share, up from 49 cents. Warren Buffett's investment firm Berkshire Hathaway (-1%) revealed that it had acquired an additional 6 million shares of Occidental Petroleum (+1.2%) for nearly $360 million. Google announced on Thursday that it was closing its cloud-based video game platform Stadia, due to the service's difficulties of winning users. The Alphabet subsidiary (-2.6%) declared in a statement that it would end subscriptions, which since 2019 have allowed users to play streaming games from connected devices such as phones or TVs.

Stocks in Asia mostly fell, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 2% to 25,901 points and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong narrowly holding its ground at 17,154 points. China’s Shanghai Composite is virtually unchanged ahead of the "golden week" bank holidays. South Korea's Kospi trades flat, with technology and internet stocks weak. The stock exchange remains closed on Monday for the Day of the Founding of the Republic.

U.S. government debt yields rose on Thursday, led by the policy-sensitive 2-year rate, after a double-digit inflation report from Germany reignited broader concerns about persistent price gains and the likelihood of aggressively higher U.S. interest rates. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield recovered 3 basis points to 3.770% while the 2-year Treasury note regained 6 basis points to 4.197%.

Jefferies lowers Straumann target to CHF 130 (147) - Buy
BoA cuts Apple to Neutral - Target drops to USD 160
UBS reduces Kion target to EUR 29 (75) - Buy

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